Can opener



March- -25 1924o 1,487,824)

R. T.- STEVENSON CAN .OPENER Filed Feb. 15; 1922 Patented Mar. 25, 1924.

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ROBERT r. STEVENSON, or CHICAGO, ILLINoIs; CLARAMOND T. s'rEvENsoN; AnMINrs- TRATRIX or SAID EoBEET r. STEVENSON, DECEASED, ASSIGNOR- TO THE STEVEN- soN SALES COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

CAN OPENER.

'Application filed February 15, 1922. Serial No. 536,730.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, ROBERT T. STEVENSON,

a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Can Openers, of which the following is a specification. This invention. relates to an improved can opener of the character disclosedvin Patent No.85? ,212, issued to me June 18, 1907, and seeks, asone of its principal objects, to provide a device of this character which may be formed from a suitable sheet metal.

A further object of the invention is to provide a device wherein each of the two complemental members employed may be formed from a single piece of material and may be stamped at one operation.

And the invention has as a still further object to provide a device which will be entirely eflicient and convenient in practical use.

Other and incidental objects will appear hereinafter.

In the drawing:

Figure l is a side elevation of my improved can opener,

Figure 2 is a perspective view showing one of the complemental members of the device in detail,

Figure 3 is a sectional view showing the coiiplemental members of the device closed, an

Figure 4 is a detail sectional view on the line 4-4 of Figure 1, looking in the direction of the arrows.

In carrying the invention into effect, I employ complemental members 10 and 11 which are pivotally connected by a suitable pivot pin 12. The member 10 is stamped from a single piece of suitable resilient sheet metal bent into substantially channel shape, the rear end portion of the member providing a handle. At the forward end of the handle the sides of said member are widened to provide a pair of parallel ears 13, one of which is cut away at its rear end to form a shoulder 14:. In advance of the ears, the member is then bent, as best shown in Figure 4, to form a serrated jaw 15 at one side of which the metal is bent up to provide a longitudinally extending upstanding guide flange 16 while at its opposite side the jaw is provided with a longitudinally directed slot 17 terminating short of the outer end of the jaw. Struck up from the handle of the member, at its forward end portion, is an outwardly curved hand stop 18. The member 11, like the member 10, is also stamped from a single piece of suitable resilient sheet metal and is channel shaped in cross section, the rear end portion of this member provid ing a handle similar to the handle of the member 10. At the forward end of the handle, the sides of the member are, as shown in detail in Figure 2, widened to provide spaced parallel ears 19, one of which is cut away at its rear end to form a stop shoulder 20 while at its forward end, said ear is continued to provide a longitudinally directed cutting blade 21. This construction provides an arrangement whereby the blade is integrally formed on the member so that the complete member, including the blade, may be stamped at one operation and preferably, the blade is, as illustrated, provided with a curved cutting edge. Struck up from the handle of the member 11 near its forward end is an outwardly curved hand stop 22 identical with the stop 18. The ears 19 of the member 11 are formed to freely fit between the ears 13 of the member 10 and, as will now be observed, the pivot pin 12 e2:- tends through these ears for swingingly connecting the members, the blade 21 projecting freely through the slot 17. Accordingly, when the members 10 and 11 are rocked, the blade will coact with the jaw 15 to accomplish the cutting operation, the presence of the slot in the jaw insuring a clean out while the flange 16 is disposed to coact with a can top for guiding the device.

Surrounding the pivot pin 12 to extend at its ends within the channels of the handles of the members 10 and 11, is a spring 23 tending to separate said handles and struck upfrom the handles at their rear ends are inwardly directed hooks 24:. A doubleended link 25 is permanently connected at one end to one of said hooks and is detachably engageable at its opposite end with the other of said hooks for holding the jaw 15 and blade 21 closed. In this connection,

attention is directed to the fact that, as shown in detail in Figures 2 and 3, the shoulder 20 lies at the junction of the handle of the member 11 with the ears 19 and that at the forward end of said shoulder the sides of the handle are pressed inwardly so that said ears may fit between the ears 13 of the member 10. Thus, due to the bending of the metal at the forward end of the shoulder, the shoulder is caused to assume an inclined position extending into the plane of the shoulder 14 and is accordingly disposed to strike the latter shoulder for limiting the blade 21 in its movement toward the jaw 14-. Thus, the cutting edge of the blade will be prevented from striking said jaw at the outer end of the slot 17 Preferably, the blade is, as shown in Figure 1, somewhat longer than the jaw and is tapered towa'rd its outer end to provide a piercing point, It will accordingly be seen that I provide a device, the two essential elements of which, namely, the members and 11, are each stamped from sheet metal. At the same time, the tool is of sturdy construction and will prove entirely efticient in use.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new is: 1 .t it

A can opener includiiig .coniple'mental sheet metal members one having a longitudinally .direflted ofiset.,,j w, proyided near one longitudinal, ther lot and theaother haying blade 4 p I, oting through said'slot to 'c'oop'eratwith the jaw, the metal of said first mentioned member being folded to define an upstanding guide rib of abutting thicknesses of metal at the edge of the jaw opposite said slot as well as to define spacedears at the base. d'fthe jaw and the metal of. said wsecond.me'nt'ioned member being-folded to define spaced'earS at the base of said blade fitting between the ears of said first. mentioned member, "and a pivot pin extendihgthrough said. ears .piw otally connecting; the'vmembers, zanse'aif of said second mentioned member 'beiii'gfl'ontinuedto formthe bladenszvj,

In te's'tilm" nywliereofrl aflixzmyisignature.

ROBERT T. STEVENSON. [n 5.] 

